Monday, July 07, 2014

Patriotic kitty got all stripey for Independence Day but Bookfool fell down on the blogging job and went to best friend's house for BBQ instead of posting. Hope all of my American friends had a great holiday!

We had quite a weekend. Our BBQ dinner was great fun but the next day our air conditioner died and we spent the weekend trying not to move much while we were in the house. Fortunately, we have a very small window air conditioner that the husband used in his garage workroom in the old house. He hosed it down, stuck it in the master bedroom window and that gave us a place to cool off when we were forced to actually do something (which, you know, just keeps happening when you're alive). Recent Arrivals:

While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell and

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker were the only arrivals, both from a friend.

Straight Man by Richard Russo (because a friend wants to discuss it with me)

Parson's Green by Fiona Bagley (for F2F discussion)

We didn't watch a single movie, this weekend, just random episodes of various television shows, few of which I actually managed to sit through all the way from beginning to end. Because the air conditioning wasn't working, we went out to eat on Saturday and brought home plenty of leftovers. The rest of the weekend we used the microwave to avoid heating up the house and we did a couple last runs to the old house to finish emptying the workroom, garage and random cabinets of scattered tools and miscellaneous things we needed to scoop up after finishing repairs.

I have my eye on a movie that Huzzybuns loudly protested against viewing, so I may sneak that in when he leaves town on business. At some point this week, we're supposed to close on the sale of our old house but the tree man has not yet arrived to take down the humongous oak tree we're required to remove before the sale and neither of us really wants to close until after the tree has come down. For one thing, we want to watch it come down (should be quite a spectacle as we can't even see the top of the tree when standing beneath it) and we'd also like to get a slice of the main trunk so we can count the rings. We've always assumed those two oak trees in front of our former home are quite old but it would be fun to know the actual number of years the tree has been growing.

Here's some of the tree . . . it just keeps going and going:

Meanwhile, back at the new house I've been working on my writing space in our home library. I cleaned off my desk and put a scented candle on top of it to light when I'm writing, then the two of us sorted through books lying on the floor and donated quite a few. We removed a rug that's far too small and put in a new one that's larger but still honestly a little too small for the room. No problem. The look is much improved. I've still got a bit more sorting, shelving and donating to do but we're getting close to finally having a nice space in which to read and write! Wahoo!

Because I may be gone for a tree removal and/or a house closing, I can't say this will necessarily be the week I return to normal posting but I'll do my best. I was nicely caught up before my two jaunts to New Jersey but now I've got a backlog, again. Fortunately, the books are all memorable. I don't think I'll have any difficulty reviewing them, when the time comes.

2 comments:

Whoooooosh is right. How can it be July?!And what is wrong with the trees?!?!??!?!? so sad. You don't have to explain but I still think it is tremendously SAD.I finished The Humans this morning. Still reeling. Probably having to do with it being the day before school starts up again and THAT LIST. I love that you always come back to blogging. Please let me schedule you an intervention if you seriously think you need to call it quits. I do you read this more than comment. (blogger does NOT like me as I realize that WP does not like you blog-gers or is it blogger-ers?)

Funny you should say that about WP not liking Blogger people and vice-versa. I had trouble replying to a reply at your blog, yesterday. I have hinky internet, though, so I figured it was just my internet hiccuping and will try again another day.

The inspector expressed concern about the possibility that the oak roots might cause damage to the foundation of our old house. Huz called in a Structural Engineer who disagreed but said if the buyers are concerned, he recommended only removing the tree closest to the house and not grinding the stump. I just found out tonight that the tree guy came in the afternoon (I drove over there around noon and he hadn't arrived) and the tree is already half gone *sob*. It is definitely sad. Such beautiful old trees. At least the bigger of the two trees is being spared.

THAT LIST is incredible, isn't it? It's the thing that makes you say, "Ohmygosh, brilliance." So glad you enjoyed it. I noticed you gave The Humans 4 stars at Goodreads. :)

Hmm, I was actually thinking about leaving the blog. LOL But, I've pretty much decided that I'll stick around forever. I might just not write about every single book I read. My goal is to go back to writing fiction full-time so that will obviously limit my blog time but at least I soon won't have two full sets of house bills to deal with, knock wood. Cannot wait to be done with that house and move on!!!

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Bookfool periodically whispers unusual words and disappears in a puff of smoke. New review policy can be seen below by clicking on the Eat, Sleep, Read image. All material (including photos, but excluding most cover images) is my own unless otherwise stated and thus protected by copyright. Please leave a comment on any post to request permission to use content from this blog.